Starting next year, students in residence halls should be prepared to open their dorm room door for Binghamton University staff at any time — or else they may be charged for violating a rewritten “failure to cooperate” policy.

BU Council made several changes Friday to the Rules of Student Conduct manual that will affect students starting next year. The new 2008-09 edition creates a penalty for students who do not open their doors for University officials.

Members of the council received copies of changes proposed by the department of Student Affairs about a week in advance of the meeting. They discussed these changes Friday and voted to approve them. The most contentious change this year requires students to open their dorm room door for University officials.

Although students will have to come out when they are asked to by an official, officials will not necessarily be allowed in. The emphasis of the policy is placed on the ability of an official to speak with a student when he or she deems it necessary, not to search a student’s room.

“Failure to cooperate occurs when, at the request of a University official a student fails to … exit resident hall room, suite or apartment to speak to University official,” the new rules read.

“Such a rule makes clear that it is not acceptable behavior to just ignore the staff person seeking the opportunity to address the concern,” said Brian Rose, vice president for Student Affairs.

“Ideally, most matters get handled without the need for formal charges,” he added.

Nevertheless, the change has faced student opposition. On Monday, April 14, the Student Association passed a resolution specifically opposing the change. Chris Powell, the only student on BU council and a member of the SA, brought that resolution up before the council Friday as he argued against the changes, but he said that “it fell primarily, I think, on deaf ears.”

“Once that door opens, they can and will claim plain sight jurisdiction over the room,” Powell said. “We’re seeing student privacy and freedoms suffer that way.”

Powell said that the fact that students have no personal space aside from their dorm and that now they don’t have sole domain over their room is “unfortunate and unfair.”

Currently the rules state that students who do not open their door for officials are obligated to come before Judicial Affairs and explain themselves. These hearings typically include a deconstruction of the entire event, with the students required to provide a complete explanation. The changes will unnecessarily add to this process, said Powell.

“In this case, rather than … having a formal meeting to discuss the event, the night or the day in question, they are now coming to defend themselves on a charge of ‘failure to cooperate’ while still discussing what may or may not have happened,” Powell said.

The Binghamton University Council is composed of nine members appointed by the governor and one student chosen by his peers. It has authority over the rules that govern students.

Seven times a year, the council convenes in the Couper Administration Building. The 10 unpaid members, including a doctor, a lawyer and the president of the New York State Bar Association sit at a table with BU President Lois DeFleur and each University vice president to review faculty and staff decisions, oversee campus grounds, name buildings and ratify any changes to the Rules of Student Conduct.

“As far as I know, there’s no other way to fight them,” Powell said.